Posts Tagged ‘pork’

I hate the phrase ‘throw someone under the bus’. That being said, I totally did it twice yesterday.

The first time, my bosses boss came over and asked about an anti-fatigue mat I was supposed to have since I have my standing desk. I told him I asked my boss for it, BECAUSE I HAD. Afterwards my coworker said she thought I got my boss in trouble. Whoops.

The second time was at dinner. Crockett and I had some errands to run, and we stopped on the way home to grab a pizza. A friend of ours that works there was bartending, which is a new position for her, and she was slammed. She got our drinks and put in our pizza order, but then when our pizza came we didn’t have napkins or plates or silverware. We tried to get her attention but then the bar manager saw us trying, and I made a silverware motion and he brought us some.

Then she called me out on it, and I felt absolutely terrible.

So, yeah. Whoops.

The pizza was damn good though. Marinated zucchini, buttermilk ricotta, and mozzarella.

I would eat more right now if I could.

Other dubious decisions I made yesterday: piling my breakfast into a jar like this. Pretty, right?

Eating it was not easy. My hand was covered with yogurt by the time I was done.

To make me feel better, my company gave me a popsicle.

(They did really give me a popsicle, although I don’t think it’s because of my yogurt hand issue. It was just general employee appreciation.)

Anyway. I don’t have another picture of the pork tacos, but I do have the recipe!

For the pork, using a slow cooker:
Cut the pork into fist size chunks. Add with all other ingredients to slow cooker, add water to cover, and cook on low for 8 – 10 hours.

For the pork, using the stove:
Cut the pork into fist size chunks then cut in half again. Add with all other ingredients to a dutch oven, cover with water, and bring to a boil on the stovetop. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 1 – 1 1/2 hours.

Either way, when the pork is done, reserve a cup of the water (with as little fat in it as possible) and set the pork on a plate to cool until you can touch it. Discard the onions and garlic. Shred the pork with your fingers or two forks, and set aside.

Start the slaw an hour before you’re planning on eating. Mix the wet ingredients together with the sugar. Find a dish that you can put something on top of, because you’re going to need to press down on the broccoli so that it all pickles at the same rate. Add the liquid and slaw to the container, cover with plastic, and then rest something on top so that all slaw is submerged.

When you’re ready to eat, mix together the sour cream and lime juice to taste. Fill a tortilla with pork (if it’s cold, reheat it on the stove with a little of the reserved cooking water), add slaw, and top with crema.

It was nice enough that we could sit on the patio. (Please excuse my dirty camera lens.)

I told the host and our server that it was Crockett’s birthday. He told me to stop. I said ‘not on your life’.

And then we got free cinnamon sugar doughnuts, proving pretty soundly that I was right and he was wrong.

Ha.

We ordered brunch drinks – a peach mimosa for me and a bloody maria for the birthday boy, and then got down to doughnut eating while we made our meal choices.

And while Crockett fielded birthday calls, left and right.

He’s apparently quite popular.

Here’s the thing about fried food. It may be guilt inducing, sometimes. It may be overkill, sometimes.

Sometimes, though? It’s perfect. These doughnuts were warm and crispy and every single bite was absolutely necessary.

Lola is a little tough for me – they have a lot of bell peppers in their hashes and stuff. I went with a safe choice.

Chicken and waffles.

Wait, did I say safe?

I meant delicious. It was a brined chicken breast with buttermilk waffles (I think), chorizo gravy, and a raspberry chipotle syrup. I made Crockett a bite right off, so that I wouldn’t eat it all before he got to try it.

For his own meal, Crockett went for the pulled pork benedict, served on chile cornmeal muffins.

It was tasty, but it was no chicken and waffles.

I also caved and ordered coffee. I’m trying to move away from coffee in restaurants, because I keep getting refills and then I feel a little jittery until mid-afternoon. Sure, I could just turn down the refills, but it’s better if I don’t have to put myself in that position. I’m not strong like that.

A chicken waffleicious bite, right there.

Lola is in a really great neighborhood of Denver, and they’re one of the locations where you can rent these bikes. You pay $6 for the day, and can take a bike from any location for up to half an hour for free. It’s kind of expensive, but we had some time to kill before our next stop, so we rented a couple and rode around the neighborhood, looking at adorable houses and new condos and dreaming of a slightly more urban life. When we brought the bikes back, we realized we still had some time to kill, so we checked them out again and rode over the highway into downtown Denver. We tooled around for half an hour, through the parks – it was a very effective way to rid ourselves of our brunch induced desire to nap.

It’s a good thing, because our big event for the day was pretty physical. Indoor skydiving!

(Those two people are not us.)

These two people are us.

Once we started the skydiving, I had to lock up all my stuff, so I don’t have any pictures. I do have a video, but in general it was like this – we laid on our stomachs in the wind and tried really hard to learn what some people make look easy.

We were pretty good, honestly.

Afterwards, we went to Crockett’s brothers house for dinner and delicious homemade Italian style cheesecake.

I’m not bad with money. I mean, I’m no investing genius, but I’m not rolling in debt. (Aside from a mortgage and school loans – but everyone knows that’s good debt, right? Right, guys?)

However, there’s an area in which my ability to budget goes out the window.

Ok, two areas.

The first one is the area occupied by Banana Republic in the local mall.

The second, and more relevant, is the area of food.

The two big areas are eating out and buying fresh groceries frequently and when I want them rather than when it makes sense. (Wait for sales? Sure! As long as I don’t have a vague hankering for whatever it is right now, that is.) A third is stockpiling things and then saving them, because I’m worried that I won’t be able to replace them. See: frozen Bing cherries from Costco. I’ve hoarded my last bag for months, and just started eating cherries again when I was able to buy a replacement bag.

Now that I have six pounds of cherries instead of just three, I feel like I can eat them again.

Quirks. We all have ‘em.

Yesterday – cherries heated in the microwave with a little cinnamon, topped with Costco’s Greek Yogurt (not to shabby, for 2/3 the price of Fage) and some granola.

It was like breakfast pie.

Today – same basic concept, different delivery. That’s actually cocoa powder that the still frozen cherries are tossed in, not cinnamon, and plain oats instead of granola. I stirred this up and and let it warm up during the drive to school.

I also end up throwing out food. Well, first I transfer food that I think we won’t eat in time to the freezer, for some future date. Then, when that future date is clearly never going to happen, I throw it out.

It’s sad.

I’m working on it.

I’m working on it by eating the things in my fridge, even when I don’t feel like it anymore. Witness: pork and coleslaw, Monday afternoon.

Sooooooooo much pork.

More pork, yesterday during office hours.

I proctored my first test last night! This is only half the classroom – there were students in the other half and somehow I suspect they wouldn’t appreciate their last minute nerves ended up online.

I was in Golden from lunchtime until almost 9, and I packed lunch but drew a blank on dinner. I ended up stopping by the grocery store and grabbing some of that guilty pleasure sushi (you know, the kind with the shredded fake crab?) to eat during the exam.

The exam was more stressful for me than I’d expected.

So I ended up eating the sushi after I got home, while grading tests and watching Breaking Bad.

Anyway, I’m aiming for pantry meals this week. Tonight I made mushroom and white bean soup – I’ll show you tomorrow.

There was a new drinking fountain (on what is possibly the ugliest wall ever) at the gym. See, there’s a water bottle filler thingy above the drink-from-here thingy! (I don’t know why someone hasn’t already hired me as official namer of things.)

There was ramen (Thai Kitchen Bangkok Curry).

There was homework.

There was Costco, and a trip to the mall to return two shirts to Banana Republic that ended with us leaving with two (different) shirts from Banana and two shirts from J Crew (not all mine, Crockett was with me).

Most importantly, though?

There was pizza.

I realize this is not the most attractive pizza you’ve ever seen. Partially, that’s because I made my own dough and then froze it in a pizza shape, and during the baking process it stuck to the foil I baked it on. Every piece had to be flipped and peeled before it could be eaten.

What it lacked in prettiness, it made up for in damn-that’s-tasty-ness.

Plum and Pulled Pork Pizza

More of a suggestion than a recipe, ok? As in, I suggest that the next time you have these ingredients on hand, this is what you do with them. The suggested qualities are per serving – I made a pizza big enough for the two of us, so I used twice as much of everything as listed.

Pulled pork – any recipe, about half a cup Plums – preferably large ones, so you don’t end up with a lot of peel, about 1/2 Goat cheese – 1/3 cupMozzarella – 1/3 cupThyme – teaspoon, dryOlive oil Pizza dough (fresh, homemade, frozen – I suspect even Boboli would work here)

Heat the oven to 450, with the pan you want to cook the pizza on inside.

Using a mandoline or a sharp knife, slice the pitted plum(s) into 1/8 inch thick slices.

Separate the pork into bite size strands and chunks.

Mix together the goat cheese and mozzarella in a small bowl.

Roll out whatever pizza dough you’re using. (You want to be able to transfer it, so think small rather than huge (or use whatever your regular pizza baking strategy is)).

Smoosh the cheese mixture over the dough and sprinkle over the thyme. Lay out the plum slices, overlapping in places (they’ll shrink in the oven) and brush them with olive oil. It’s fine if some of the oil gets onto the cheese or dough. Evenly distribute the pork over the top.

Bake for about 18 minutes. If the pork starts to burn, you can cover the top with foil. (Alternatively, bake the whole thing for 10 minutes and then pull it out and add the pork and stick it back in).

Eat it.

It’s sweet, but savory. Cheese, but not too cheesy.

It may be my single favorite pizza I’ve ever made, and I’m terrified that Crockett is going to eat the leftovers before I get home.

With it, I served this salad. I already had the mandoline out, I had brussels sprouts, I had a new chunk of romano cheese from Costco – I was all set. The only changes I made were to leave out the thyme and to use almonds instead of hazelnuts.

One day, in the not too distant future, I will in fact eat a meal somewhere other than my car, my office, or the kitchen table surrounded by school books.

it’s true.

That day is definitely not today.

First, I ate oatmeal while grading homework. (I do have a grader but the first exam is next week and the kids need their homework back and oh also my grader has mono. Yeah, that’s happening.)

I had a whole thing with oats this summer. I was all ‘we’re together every day and I think it’s getting old, I want to see other breakfasts’ and they were all ‘but you know you love us and your heart loves us too’ and finally, sometime in July, I said no. I broke it off with them.

They assured me I’d be back.

And here I am.

And it’s true. I missed them. This particular batch had shredded coconut, a chopped pear, and cottage cheese. It was good, but I’ve lost my knack for the perfect bowl. It’s ok, I’ll try again tomorrow. I know they’ll always be there for me.

I lectured again (test review) and unlike last week, I pretty much nailed it today.

I celebrated with a kickass salad. Seriously, this was insane. It’s a slab of watermelon drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette, topped with mixed greens, chopped tomato, and enough goat cheese that it might just be cheaper for me to raise a damn goat in the backyard.

It could have used something soft and mild – avocado, maybe? Again, I can always try tomorrow. There is half a watermelon haunting me from the fridge.

Not pictured, four mugs of tea consumed in between screaming-at-my-SO-poorly-written-textbooks jags.

I finished up an assignment that’s been killing me around 7, so I went to the gym and ran like a nutball. Too fast, arms and legs flailing, red faced – the whole shebang.

It totally made me feel better.

Now we’re having the pork that smelled so good yesterday.

And good it is.

Off to watch either Paul (if I win) or True Blood (if Crockett wins) until I start feeling guilty and must return to the desk.

The thing about making a gigantic dish of pulled pork and living with someone who loves pulled pork as much as you do is that you have to eat as much pulled pork as you can as quickly as possible lest it all disappear into the belly of your fridge sharer.

Pulled pork for lunch.

I made a very silly mistake on Thursday. I assumed that my cold could be beaten by a handerchief.

The less said about that, the better.

After my cold got me kicked out of a meeting (I am not kidding even the tiniest little bit), I took at alternate route to the coffee shop and passed the engineering building. I don’t know what happens in this building, but I’m assuming it’s haunted.

I mean, look at it.

When I got home, Crockett was already heating the remainder of the pork and mandolining the sweet potatoes.

I know I said he wasn’t allowed to touch the mandoline, but he snuck in while I wasn’t paying attention.

Yesterday it warmed up to a spanking 8 degrees ABOVE zero! ABOVE. I celebrated with a scone for breakfast, and then I had to run some errands. When I got back home it was already like 2 pm – I don’t know how I let the days get away from me like that.

What happens then is that I’m wicked hungry and don’t have time to get all fancy for lunch.

I made a buffalo chik’n wrap, with what turns out was a stale tortilla.

I had some very important daytime photos to take for my still secret project too.

This is that apple chipotle bar from Tuesday night.

And the almond version of the same.

During my errands I’d realized that we had no food for dinner, so I grabbed some $1.99/lb boneless country pork ribs from Albertsons Great Pork Sale! (which makes me laugh every time I see the sign – why the !, Albertsons?). As soon as I got home I put it in the slow cooker with some salt, some water, and some of the super sweet Sweet Baby’s Ray’s bbq sauce I love so much.

When the pork was almost ready, we mandolined up a big ol sweet potato and tossed the chips with about a tablespoon of olive oil and 1-2 tsp of sea salt, then threw them in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes.

I’d also bought bagged coleslaw veggies (also on sale, but sadly without exclamation points), and we dressed that using some coleslaw dressing Crockett’s mom left behind the last time she was in town.

Crockett’s plate: the Dagwood of bbq pork. Bread, bbq sauce, pork, bbq sauce, coleslaw, bbq sauce, chips and more bbq sauce for good measure. Notice his inability to stop eating it long enough for me to take a picture.

It turns out that when I feel overtaxed in my head, my desire to branch out in my belly is the first thing to go. For the last two weeks of the semester, breakfast was a smoothie…

oatmeal….

or eggs, Crockett style.

I also put the slow cooker into heavy rotation, and made some baked beans and some pulled pork. I bought a bag of pre-shredded cabbage – I swear it’s cheaper – and made coleslaw as needed.

There’s a bbq place here in Boulder county called KT’s. They have a menu item called the June Bowl, which is three of their menu items layered in a styrofoam container and covered in bbq sauce. I always get the beans, pork, and coleslaw. This was my homemade approximation. The bbq sauce I buy at the store is definitely different – I want it to be more vinegary and less sweet. I should probably just learn how to make my own. Recipe recommendations?

Anyway, this was lunch days 4-10, probably.

Crockett got me out of the house for a calamari salad once, and did his best to make me laugh.

The squid on the ketchup did it.

As did the beer stash.

Isn’t he the best?

Anyway, I didn’t waste away to nothing, so clearly food was had. However, I’m so ready to get back to new things – healthy and tasty and exciting things.

First, something very exciting happened by the fence. I don’t know what it was, but it turned Maida into White Lightening.

Then we tried to take advantage of the 50 degree weather by going for a walk, and we almost blew away. We settled for laying in the sunshine instead.

I also cleaned the kitchen and did some handywoman stuff around the house (including taking the mattress and boxspring off my bed and tightening all the springs on my wrought iron frame – that thing is a menace and is going to drop me one of these nights).

I left the girls for a long overdue lunchdate. A girlfriend of mine and I fell out of touch several months ago, and we finally got it together today to go to the Waterloo for Taco Tuesday.

When I got there she’d already ordered chips. Working for a living makes you hungry, it seems – I recommend academia for those who are trying to cut back. A combination of a nervous stomach and no money will do it every time.

Not that either of those two things stopped me from destroying a pulled pork sandwich with housemade pickles and pickled onions, coleslaw, and sweet potato fries.

She took her cheery red jacketed self back to work, and I walked a couple of blocks to see the other folks who wandered into Louisville for lunch…

Crockett and his sister in law. Not pictured: niece and nephew with their own child sized cheese pizzas. (I would have tried harder to take a non-full mouth picture, but …. I guess I didn’t realize exactly how full his mouth was. Cute, ain’t he.)